Pamela Newkirk

Pamela Newkirk is a native New Yorker and award-winning journalist who spent ten years working as a reporter and writer before joining the journalism faculty at New York University. Her articles exploring race, media, art, and African American culture have been published widely, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Artnews, and The Nation. Her first book, Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media (1999) won the National Press Club Award for media criticism. Her upcoming book, Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga (Amistad) tells the story of a young Congolese male who in 1906 became an international sensation when he was exhibited in the Bronx Zoo Monkey House. The book exposes century-old secrets and lies surrounding the circumstances of Ota Benga's life while it charts the evolution of race and science at the dawn of the 20th century. Spectacle raises difficult questions about attitudes that persist today.